New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said Friday the woman whose two-year-old rape campus allegation was not investigated until last month “was failed by people and institutions with an obligation to protect her.” Details from a civil lawsuit filed by the victim last month — including a screenshot of messages inviting dozens of men to participate in the hours-long alleged assault — have sparked widespread calls for change.
Criminal charges are expected to be presented to a grand jury against the seven men named in a civil lawsuit filed by the victim last month, but, according to a legal scholar, not against others who were aware of the assault but did not intervene. That scholar said laws with financial penalties could be used to compel people to act when safely possible.
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The others
Thomas P. Guiffra, an attorney for the victim, has said, “The fact that they sent an invitation out to 57 men to rape a woman, and nobody did anything to stop it — this is horrible to me.”
Public outrage has also been directed at fraternity members who were part of the Snapchat thread where the alleged assault was discussed. “Fifty men did nothing,” one woman vented in a TikTok video shared widely online. “All it took was for one man in that group chat to step up and say, ‘I’m not allowing this s— to happen,” said another woman in a different video.
Hochul said earlier this week her staff was looking at how to strengthen New York’s anti-campus assault laws in the upcoming legislative session. “I think we can do better,” Hochul said Wednesday. “This culture has to stop.”
‘Bad Samaritan’
Currently, there is no law in New York that requires fraternity members to report or intervene, according to Zachary Kaufman, a professor at the University of Florida Levin College of Law who has written extensively about the role of third parties during crimes and atrocities.
At least 29 states have such laws, including Minnesota, which applies to people in “an emergency” or who have “suffered grave physical harm,” and Florida, which is unique for exempting family members, according to Kaufman.
In an interview Friday, Kaufman said critics who cite the need to safeguard personal liberties, or avoid creating a meddlesome society, mischaracterize how popular such laws are, and how nuanced prosecutors can be in applying them.
“My argument would be there are some crises and crimes that are so egregious and the victims of which could so easily be assisted, I believe we should accept a requirement, a legal requirement to assist,” he said. “And there are other cultures and traditions around the world that subscribe to that view.” He said such laws are “much more common than the previous scholarship has understood.”
Kaufman’s recommendations, outlined in a paper several years ago, make exceptions for people who are minors, intoxicated, in danger themselves, or unaware that what they are witnessing is a crime. Penalties he recommends include misdemeanors that carry fines of up to $1,000 but not jail time.
“It’s a very important topic, and New York doesn’t have these laws, um, these sorts of laws, which a lot of other jurisdictions do,” Kaufman said. “If I can play a role in trying to advocate for New York to close this legal gap, where there is clear evidence of a sexual assault — I want to be a part of that.”
Round out your reading
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